Noragric's Arild Vatn awarded prestigous international prize

The accolade affirms Vatn's notable international presence in the field of environmental governance, and was presented at the 2016 ISEE Conference, 26-29 June at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington DC, USA.

About the award

“Kenneth E. Boulding (1910-1993) was a leading systems thinker who integrated social theory with the natural sciences and moral philosophy. He was an eccentric, provocative critic of the fragmentation that characterized modern scholarship. Yet his creativity, seminal ideas, and constructive engagement with the scientific community were widely recognized, resulting in his being elected President of the American Economics Association and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Kenneth and his wife, Elise Boulding, herself a renowned sociologist, were Quakers who actively contributed to the international peace movement. Kenneth lived humbly, with grace, wit and laughter, and maintained unbounded faith that goodness and sensibility would ultimately prevail in a world, then as now, seriously threatened by human folly. This award is given in honor of people who exemplify aspects of the special character of Kenneth E. Boulding with the hope of perpetuating his many individual strengths that combined into wisdom among ISEE members and beyond.” (Source: ISEE)

ISEE's Biography of Arild Vatn

"Arild Vatn is professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). His main contributions have been in institutional and ecological economics. He has published two major books, Environmental Governance. Institutions, Policies and Actions (2015) and Institutions and the Environment (2005). He had a major role in introducing and rigorously defining the concept of “institutions” for ecological economics. One recent article is “Markets in environmental governance. From theory to practice”, Ecological Economics, 117:225-233.

He gave a memorable plenary talk in at the ISEE conference in Delhi in 2006, explaining the origin and strongly criticizing the principle of “limited liability” incorporation law (remembering that the East India Company was one of the first companies to offer limited liability to its shareholders). Arild Vatn has published on environmental governance and policy evaluations regarding environmental resources and pollution. He has been a protagonist in debates on environmental valuation. He was president of the European Society of Ecological Economics and he organized a pioneering and very influential series of PhD summer schools in ecological economics in Europe between 2006 and 2014."